The War on Deneba
"If the Republic doesn't answer us by tomorrow, we'll do it our fucking selves" -Commandate Felix Liane The Separatist invasion of Deneba was a part of the Clone Wars, designed to establish an operational zone to strike at undefended Republic sectors. Due to the Republic's unwillingness and inability to assist the citizens of Deneba, local militias were responsible for fending off the Droid attacks. These militias took the form of the Deneba Mounted Volunteers, under the command of Commandante Felix Laine. The Volunteers were a loosely joined together confederation of fighting forces, thus different militias took different forms in organisation and command. The war was one of the most brutal conflicts of the Clone Wars, with civilians oftentimes (and purposely) being caught in the crossfire between the Droid Army and Mounted Volunteers. Geography of Deneba Deneba is a desert world, harsh and rocky. Survival is difficult and most of the population lives in large urban areas around oasis' and small rivers and creeks. Outside of those cities are a mixture of barely sustaining towns and mining villages. Due to atmospheric storms, ships could only fly with low weight loads, lest they lose structural integrity. As such most transport took place on ground highways to areas where the atmosphere was stable enough for consistent air travel to orbit. Deneba has no oceans, all water on the surface either exists in an oasis or small lakes, rivers, and creeks. There is some evidence that millions of years ago Deneba had several large seas, however by the Clone Wars all the remained of those seas were dried sea beds. Deneba also had a native near-human native population, who rarely interacted with the larger populations but formed cordial relations with the isolated hamlets and mining towns. These Natives survived mainly as hunter-gatherers, though pre-human colonisation there were some agricultural areas. However these early attempts at civilisations were found to be abandoned by the time of colonisation. Deneba is also known for its large ore and precious metal deposits, which spurred on a large period of settlement to mining towns in the desert mountains and plains. However, due to the lack of Republic garrison and security forces, mining companies bought poorly armed PMCs to guard mining caravans and the stealing of small amounts of metals. Finally, Deneba is broken up into thirteen provincial sectors of varying size and population. CIS invasion of Deneba Initial Invasion In 22BBY, wanting to get an early advantage over the Republic, CIS leadership decided the Republic planet of Deneba in the Midrim would make a good target for the invasion. Owing to Deneba's position in the Midrim and the Republic's lack of protection of nearby systems and sectors. The Republic's small but elite Clone Army had to be used sparingly in areas of immediate crisis, and so Republic planners put very little thought into protecting Deneba itself. The idea was the should the Separatists strike at unguarded flanks, the Republic could respond to those attacks and liberate Deneba down the line. So when a droid army battle-group landed outside the Capital province, the only resistance to the landings were a small coalition of PMC troops from nearby mines and the Capital Police Force. Being poorly trained and poorly armed, Deneba's feeble defenders were slaughtered in combat with the CIS. Within the hour the Capital city, Wallen, had fallen to droid occupation. With the fall of Wallen, a majority of the mining companies chose to abandon Deneba, fearing the Confederate wrath for not immediately surrendering their operations to military control. While some companies relocated their workers off planet, many of the labourers and employees of these mining companies were abandoned to live under droid occupation. The CIS quickly moved to occupy these mining towns and their associated mines, and pressed the local population into working for survival. Felix Liane Felix had lived on Deneba for most of his life, originally from Onderon his father had brought young Felix to Deneba when received a government job in Wallen. Despite not being a birth Deneban, Felix grew to love his new home and explored much of the deserts around Wallen during his teenage years and early twenties. By the age of 30, Felix had become an officer in the Capital Police Force and had become rather respected in Deneban society. When droid forces arrived on Deneba and began their march towards Wallen, Felix was one of the many members of the CPF to meet the advancing force in combat. Despite the utter defeat the CPF was handed, Felix managed to survive the battle, and set to work on ridding Deneba of the Confederate menace. Felix's first move was to create the "Union of Deneban Free Fighters" among surviving CPF members. The Union, while short lived, made contact with Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and requested aid in their fight against Separatist tyranny. Unfortunately for Felix and his ilk General Kenobi refused their call for aid, citing more important battles the GAR needed to focus on. With confirmation the GAR would not come to their aid, Felix came to the decision to rid Deneba of the CIS himself through a war of attrition. Shortly after the GAR's refusal of aid, a droid AAT was blown up outside Wallen, with the Union taking credit for the attack. The Union of Deneban Free Fighters Under the command of Liane the Free Fighters got to work on making public displays of resistance to Separatist rule of Deneba. Vandalism, bombings of droid equipment, and pubic rallies and protests were the initial tactics used by the Union. Liane's group was only a handful of surviving CPF members, and as a result, their actions were of small scales by necessity. While the attacks and operations were almost always successful in their goals, those goals were often too small scale to do any real damage to the CIS occupation. Wanting a large scale attack to draw public attention and support for the Union, Liane devised "Operation Stolen Wings" a bombing a droid starfighter depot that'd been recently set up near Wallen Operation Stolen Wings and the Formation of the Mounted Volunteers Shortly after establishing control of Wallen and the nearby Capital Province, Confederate leadership were faced with the issues of Deneba's unique geography and storms. It would be difficult to maintain total control over all the far flung population centres and mines. In light of these circumstances, a fighter wing of specialised Vulture Droids were deployed to Wallen. The thought was that the CIS could control the major cities and towns along with the mines directly, while the rest of the planet could be kept in line with air power. Should any town rebel again the Confederacy, it could wipe off the face of the map with a barrage of bombs and blaster fire from the air. For Liane, such a reality couldn't be allowed to pass, so the Union devised a plan to destroy these new droids. Disguised as labourers working on expanding the airfield, UDFF agents would sneak onto the base and place timed bombs on key buildings, fuel depots, and aircraft. The hope was that these bombs would set off a chain reaction that would leave the Confederate Air Corps on Deneba crippled. On the day of the operation, the UDFF managed to sneak onto the base and planet their explosives on their targets. However, before the escape, several agents were caught by droid security forces and were forced to use a manual detonator, killing all agents involved but destroying the Vulture droids and their support equipment. After Stolen Wings, Liane's UDFF were given a bittersweet victory, while the Confederate plan to control the skies of Deneba was foiled, or at least delayed-most of the UDFF's best agents and members were killed in the debacle. Luckily for Liane and the survivors, their attack had inspired a general uprising in Hattah and several mining towns began a strike, refusing to work until they were fairly compensated. In Hattah, Vincent Wilson, led a group of armed civilians to strike the Confederate operating base in Hattah. Through hours of fighting with droids, Wilson's managed to overwhelm the droid defenders. The building the Separatists were operating out of was burned and Wilson set about preparing for a droid retribution attack. In the few days between the Hattah uprising and the return of the droid army, Liane and Wilson met in Hattah. Liane's UDFF were far too small now in number to do any real damage to the droids and these Hattah militiamen were far too inexperienced to keep fighting for long. The two men agreed to form a new group, the Deneba Mounted Volunteers, a decentralised organisation of resistance fighters who would fight the CIS across Deneba. Liane would serve as the leader of the organisation as a whole travelling across Deneba, helping to establish new anti-Confederate resistance groups. The War of Deneban Freedom After the Hattah uprising, as expected a droid battle group arrived to restore order in the city. The newly formed Telio Guards had spent the time preparing and fortifying the city of Hattah for the attack. For four days the Guards fought against against the droids making the Confederates pay for every